General divisions of Ohio’s 88 common pleas courts will be the first to be required to file their case statistics electronically with the Ohio Supreme Court.

General divisions of Ohio’s 88 common pleas courts will be the first to be required to file their case statistics electronically with the Ohio Supreme Court.

Ohio's general division common pleas courts are being encouraged to immediately begin using a new online system that will streamline the reporting of case statistics.

Judges hearing criminal and civil cases in all 88 of the state’s common pleas courts will soon be required to submit the statistics through the eStats system, the Ohio Supreme Court announced today.

Amendments to Rule 37 of the Rules of Superintendence for the Courts of Ohio took effect July 1 allowing the electronic submission, according to Tasha Ruth, manager of the Supreme Court’s Case Management Section. Judges will submit the data through the Supreme Court’s new eStats web portal.

Although courts will not be required to submit their reports electronically until September 15, the Case Management Section sent letters this week encouraging courts to begin using the portal now.

Ruth said that once fully implemented, the new system will streamline the report submission process eliminating redundancy in data entry and allowing caseload statistics to be more readily available. Currently, Case Management Section staff manually enters data from hard copy report forms. This information forms the basis of the annual Ohio Courts Statistical Report. It is also used to analyze case filing patterns and trends to assist local courts in managing their resources.

Ruth said the time case management staff now spends on data entry will instead be dedicated to analysis and feedback geared toward assisting local courts in monitoring trends and improving the administration of justice.

The eStats Program can be found at ohiocourts.gov. Courts should direct questions about the electronic submission process to casemgmt@sc.ohio.gov.